The Standart Yacht egg is a jewelled

Easter egg Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are eggs that are decorated for the Christian feast of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. As such, Easter eggs are common during the season of Eastertide (Easter season). The oldest tr ...

made under the supervision of the

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

jeweller

Peter Carl Fabergé Peter Carl Fabergé, also known as Karl Gustavovich Fabergé (russian: Карл Гу́ставович Фаберже́, ''Karl Gustavovich Faberzhe''; 30 May 1846 – 24 September 1920), was a Russian jeweller best known for the famous Faberg� ...

in 1909 for

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East Slavs, East and South Slavs, South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''Caesar (title), caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" i ...

Nicholas II Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Pola ...

of Russia. It was presented by Nicolas II as an Easter gift to his wife, the Czarina Alexandra Fyodorovna. It is currently held in the

Kremlin Armoury The Kremlin Armoury,Officially called the "Armou/ory Chamber" but also known as the cannon yard, the "Armou/ory Palace", the "Moscow Armou/ory", the "Armou/ory Museum", and the "Moscow Armou/ory Museum" but different from the Kremlin Arsenal. (r ...

Museum in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, and it is one of the few imperial

Fabergé egg A Fabergé egg (russian: link=no, яйцо Фаберже́, translit=yaytso Faberzhe) is a jewelled egg created by the jewellery firm House of Fabergé, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. As many as 69 were created, of which 57 survive today. Virtua ...

s that were never sold after the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...

Design

The Standart Yacht Leaf Egg is a transparent hollowed-out

rock crystal Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

egg, mounted horizontally, with a gold band with inlaid leaves of green enamel and small

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...

s marking the separation point between upper and lower halves, which bears the inscription "Standart 1909". A crowned

lapis lazuli Lapis lazuli (; ), or lapis for short, is a deep-blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color. As early as the 7th millennium BC, lapis lazuli was mined in the Sar-i Sang mines, ...

eagle is perched on either side of the egg and a large pear-shaped

pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...

hangs from each. The shaft consists of two lapis lazuli dolphins with intertwined tails. It is on an ornate stand with classical overtones, made from gold,

s, and enamel.

Surprise

The surprise is a golden replica of the Imperial Yacht, the ''Standart Yacht'', made of gold and

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platinu ...

, and coated in

vitreous enamel Vitreous enamel, also called porcelain enamel, is a material made by fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing, usually between . The powder melts, flows, and then hardens to a smooth, durable vitreous coating. The word comes from the Lati ...

. The model rests on a carved bed of crystal representing the ocean, but can be removed from the egg.

History

The c5,500 ton ''

Standart Standart may refer to: * an alternative translation of Штандартъ, the Russian name of the ship ''Shtandart'' * Standart (Heraldic flag), the Russian Regimental colors * ''Shtandart'' (frigate, 1703), a Russian sailing frigate construc ...

'' was commissioned by Tsar Alexander III in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

. It was launched in 1895 and was 116 meters long, which made it the largest yacht in the world at that time. Outfitted with ornate fixtures, including

mahogany Mahogany is a straight-grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus ''Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: Unive ...

paneling, crystal chandeliers, and other amenities (including a stable with a cow to provide the imperial children with fresh milk) it was a floating palace for the Russian Imperial Family for their vacations in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

. The Russian Imperial Family was vacationing on the ''Standart'' during the summer of 1914, when they received the news of the

assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated on 28 June 1914 by Bosnian Serb student Gavrilo Princip. They were shot at close range whil ...

, in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

, marking the start of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

References

* * * *

External links

Description at wintraecken.nl
{{DEFAULTSORT:Standart Yacht (Faberge Egg) Imperial Fabergé eggs 1909 works Fabergé in the Moscow Kremlin Museums

Design

Surprise

History

See also

References

External links